Monday, June 25, 2007

Duck Duck Goose


We brought home two new members of the posse yesterday, a goose and a duck.

Popsey loves geese. Years ago, before I met him, he kept a pair of geese in his backyard. They built a nest and hatched eggs. When they got to be too much for his small yard, he released them into the wild.

Now that we have more room, he's been on the lookout for some to adopt. The duck and goose come from a neighbor who raises livestock of many kinds, including geese, and she needed to find a new home for one of her ganders. The goose's best friend is the duck, so she didn't want them to be separated.

Their working names (still keeping our options open as we get to know them) are Jacques (the duck) and Enzo (the goose). You may recognize them from one of Popsey's favorite movies, The Big Blue.

The duck is the dominant one of the pair, and has an intelligent look about him. He makes a quiet quacking sound that is very endearing. Whenever he gets near water he shakes his tail. It's fascinating watching how water grabs their attention. If we hold a hose out on spray, they automatically walk toward it and want to get under the water.

This is the coop Popsey built:


On the inside the walls are wrapped with aviary 1" square mesh, to keep them from sticking their heads out—which, as we've been grimly warned countless times, raccoons will quickly bite off.

The coop is inside the courtyard. As they get accustomed to it here, it should be okay to let them out of their coop during the day to roam inside the fenced yard. They will have to be in the coop overnight for protection.

Yesterday they did some exploring. This is their first foray out of the coop:


Discovering the bathtub:

5 comments:

  1. Ahh.

    Our pheasant eggs didn't hatch. To much time elapsed before getting them into incubator or the thermostat not functioning properly or to many ores in the water. lol Take your pick.

    SRC had sent a couple more gophers to gopher heaven. Think he got the grand-daddy. He must have weighed a couple pounds.

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  2. Our condolences for the pheasant eggs Janet.

    Thanks for sending SRC's scores. We haven't caught any lately—Popsey has been distracted. Glad to know someone is keeping the Derby going.

    Geese do rule, but in this case, the duck rules the roost. Duck Power!

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  3. Anonymous10:40 PM

    they look delicious.

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  4. Anonymous3:46 AM

    How sweet! And how wonderful the previous owner recognized an important friendship!

    We have wild geese and ducks fly in all the time. The geese get pretty aggressive. The ducks aren't.

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